Ms Anna Corrigan:

My name is Anna Corrigan. As well as being appointed spokesperson of the Tuam Babies Family Group I am also a victim of that which occurred in the home. Eleven of our family are in the pit in Tuam. My mother, Bridget Dolan, was forced to enter the home, and my two brothers, whom I did not know even existed until relatively recently, were born in that home. One of my brothers is recorded as having died in Tuam. The whereabouts of my second brother still remains to this day, unknown. I also had an aunt who sadly died. She is recorded as having died aged 13 in an industrial home in Loughrea, County Galway. Like many others, her place of burial is currently not known. My story is not unusual, there are many like it. It is because of our stories and our experiences that it is essential that there be no further prevarication, no further procrastination, and no further obfuscation of the truth and that which occurred at Tuam, and for that matter, every other mother and baby home across the country.

Further, this issue is not limited to mother and baby homes, it is equally as applicable to industrial homes and any other institution. I acknowledge that the purpose of today's hearing is not to consider anything other than the proposed legislation, but we are doing a disservice to the countless people that have suffered and continue to suffer, because of that which occurred and the seeming inability of those responsible to be truthful in their accounts if we do not acknowledge the background to this legislation and that which has prompted it.

Furthermore, we would be doing a disservice to the more than 700 bodies of children that remain tossed without a care into a hole in the ground, without a further thought, for decades. Our initial position is that the legislation being proposed is not required. An appropriate statutory framework already exists that allows for the exhumation of bodies found and analysis of what is discovered.

However, it is also accepted that legislation in one form or another is to be passed, given the clear intention of the Government to do so. It is not an opportunity for the grass to remain undisturbed on that which happened in the past and it ought not be used as a tool to continue the opacity over this period in Irish history. Those of us who are victims and survivors deserve and demand the truth not only for ourselves, but for those countless people who died not knowing. As a result, perhaps three central themes ought to run through any steps being taken to exhume the Tuam site and-or any other identified site: to identify those buried; to establish whether there was any criminality; and to investigate that which led to such tragic events occurring so as to ensure that they cannot happen again. The sole focus of this process should be victim-centric so as to attempt to answer the plethora of questions regarding what exactly was allowed to happen within establishments such as Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

The legislation in its current form does not do this; it does not focus on any of these issues and thus there is a very real risk that the questions so desperately asked by hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals will continue to remain unanswered. The process ought to be as simple as possible and there ought to be no hurdles to surmount in seeking to investigate these sites and identify the remains that are found. Unfortunately, in its current form the legislation would appear to be the opposite of this and it is replete with opportunities to prevent exhumation and investigation.

In closing, I implore any and all who are involved in the process to remember that there is an absolute and heavy moral burden upon them to do what is right for those that tragically lost their lives and those that remain not knowing. Those held within the home were denied their human rights and Ireland failed to respect those same rights, seemingly adopting a position that unmarried mothers did not deserve that respect. Ireland remains bound by its obligations to those international human rights treaties and conventions to which it is a state party; it must honour those obligations and do now that which it failed to do previously. We demand, but more than that, we deserve, the truth.